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Another issue is the fact that True Christians (tm) are often -not- familiar with the entire Bible, only the warm fuzzy parts.

They thus think that the atheist stands against all that is warm and fuzzy about their particular god. Atheists, as we know, generally like warm and fuzzy, especially kittens, and rarely eat them for breakfast.

But rather than try to hammer home some of the more delectable bloody parts of the Bible, there are two ways to go about it:

a) the way my wife and I go about showing atheists are not evil destructors of all that is their faith: I am active in the community. So is my wife. I am open about the word -atheist- when asked, but do not propose to force my own opinions on others, including the religious. In this very religious town we have live in for a year and a half, we know every person and they know we are interested in the community.

My wife serves on the village public library board as vice-president. I was just appointed to the Village Board of Trustees (city council - my first overtly political post) as the -least- divisive of five candidates (more on that at my blog post on my recent interview on "Ask an atheist," where I explained it Sunday) to fulfill the term of a thirty-year member, though I am openly an atheist. The village is more interested in whether I pay my taxes, mow my lawn, and check up on my elderly neighbours rather than whether I cross the street to the church on Sundays.

2) Neither of us tries to go about the village "proving the Christians wrong." We go about the village living our lives the way moral people ought live, and they can see that our morality is not derived from a religious book.

But if you absolutely get someone who wants to know why you find the Bible to be less-than-satisfactory as a moral guide, point them to http://www.whydoesgodhateamputees.com - it is an awfully good read for those who would like to find good arguments to issues about answered prayer and the promises alleged in the New Testament.

not when it's repeated constantly .. just like any god stuff. religions.. they're only accepted because they've been repeated through the centuries.. sigh.. people.. people people.. learn some code.. learn a new sport.. politics and hate are no sports worth a damn

The only reason why "atheist" is a supposedly bad word is because the hard-line theists want it that way. They want people to buy in on the whole eating-babies, hedonistic, amoral crap that they spew and they get upset (sometimes REALLY upset) when reality doesn't square with their hallucination. We're the pebble in their shoe and the hair in their soup. We remind them that what they're selling is bullshit, and all the apologetics in the world won't change that.

When I first recognized that I was, indeed, an atheist, I started out looking for euphemisms for "atheist," such as "rationalist" or "freethinker," but ultimately, I think I grew to like the in-your-face attitude represented by the "A"-word. When a quartet of Jehovah's Witnesses showed up in my driveway 2-1/2 years ago and I faced my first opportunity to do so, I identified myself to them as an atheist, and when they asked if I had always been one, or if something had caused me to become an atheist, I answered, "Yes - common sense." I was polite with them and wished them a good day when they left, but I made it clear that their mistaken belief had absolutely ZERO TRACTION with me.

I will personally not tolerate the word "atheist" being treated as a forbidden or wrong or improper word because it isn't. It is an element of who I am and as I embrace all of who I am, I embrace it as well. If someone doesn't like it, that's THEIR problem.